Abstract: A high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed for the simultaneous determination of seven effective components in Houpuwenzhong capsules. The separation was performed on a Scienhome C18 column (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm) with methanol-acetonitrile-0.06% phosphonic acid (38∶27∶35, v/v/v) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min and 30 ℃. The detective wavelength was set at 235 nm. There were good linear relationships between the mass concentrations and the peak areas of alpinetin, glycyrrhizic acid, honokiol, cardamonin, costunolide, dehydrocostus lactone and magnolol in the ranges of 0.885-17.7, 107-2140, 8.85-17.7, 1.035-20.7, 4.85-97, 5.9-118 and 17.5-350 mg/L, respectively. The recoveries were 96.9%-101.1%, 96.0%-100.5%, 100.3%-100.8%, 97.7%-101.4%, 100.4%-102.3%, 96.0%-102.3% and 96.2%-100.6%, respectively. This method is rapid, simple and suitable for the quality control of Houpuwenzhong capsules.

Key words: effective components, Houpuwenzhong capsules , high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)